MATCH INFO

Sapporo, Japan, November 12, 2011 - Press Conference, China v Serbia: China picked up another difficult win against a very strong Serbian team on Saturday, again coming from a set down to take the match in four. Coach Yu Juemin said that he had prepared well to face the European champions in the contest.

China coach Yu Juemin: I came to yesterday’s game Japan and Serbia and watched closely, and I thought Serbia’s centre was very strong and I needed some kind of strategy to face it. To go against their blocking, I needed a more broad attack.

On Wang Yimei being subbed out: Her balance was not as good as usual, and this is the eighth match so she must be getting tired. So I put in number 18 [Fan Linlin], and this was her first big international match. I think she responded well.

China captain Wei Qiuyue: Today was a difficult win for us, but all our players did very well, and I think that’s why we could win. Tomorrow we still have a tough game, and we’re going to try our best for the rest of the tournament.

China player Ma Yunwen: The level of this game was really high. Yesterday we played five sets against Brazil, and we are still tired but we played well. I still think it’s not enough, so I’ll be trying my best going forward.

Serbia coach Zoran Terzic: First I’d like to congratulate China. They played better than us today. This is most important reason why they won. We didn’t play so well today. We made a lot of mistakes; our organization attacking and blocking and on defense. I think we prepared well but didn’t execute on the court. From time to time it happens. Maybe its the young players. I hope we can play better against Italy and get a win against them.

On referee Osamu Sakaide who oversaw his last FIVB match today: This is the first time I must speak good of a referee. [laughs] That’s a joke of course. He is a good referee, and I remember him well. He refereed many of our games, in the World Championships, the World Cup. And I remember every time after the game, I didn’t feel anything bad against him. That means he did a good job. I wish him all the best.

On Jovana Brakocevic’s struggle to return from injury: It’s not a very big problem for the Serbian team. We play always without Jovana. In this case I don’t care about any result, it’s important to prepare Jovana to play any game without injury. If we have to play the next one, two, or five games without her — this is it. I hope we can have her for Italy. But if not, I’m sure she can join in the next tournament.

Serbia player Milena Rasic: I want to congratulate the Chinese team for their good play. Of course today we had a bit of bad luck in third and fourth sets and we lost a couple of points. Defense wasn’t a problem, but we were making errors and that’s what lost today’s game. We’re going to try to improve and correct our errors and play better than we did today.

Serbia captain Jovana Brakocevic: I just tried to help my team today; the coach tried to change things up a bit by putting new blood in the game and be ready to help. I’m sad we lost today but we can learn from it and try to improve before tomorrow. We fought for every point, and sometimes we win sometimes we lose.

On her injury: I started practicing almost as I normally do. The pain is less and less every day. I’m just waiting for an opportunity to help my teammates.